Jogging is an effective way to burn calories, but nonstop, high-impact exercise increases the stress on your joints and back and doesn't give you all of the health benefits you get from start-and-stop workouts. If you can't complete a 30-minute jog without a break, slowing your pace and walking every few minutes will still help you burn calories and get healthful fitness benefits, especially if it helps you create longer workouts.

Jogging Without Breaks

When you jog without taking a break, you engage the aerobic energy system, burning roughly 50 percent of your calories from fat and 50 percent from glycogen. After only a few seconds of jogging, you deplete your muscles' stores of adenosine triphosphate, the chemical that helps you create muscle contractions. To replace your depleted ATP, you burn glycogen, producing lactic acid, a muscle inhibitor, in the process.

Benefits of Breaks

When you take breaks during exercise, you allow your body to remove some of the lactic acid in your muscles and replenish stores of ATP. This process helps you train your body’s ability to recover, which nonstop jogging doesn’t, according long-distance runner and coach Jeff Galloway, a member of the 1972 U.S. Olympic team. Taking a break doesn’t have to mean stopping completely -- slowing down to a walk will help your body recover somewhat before you start jogging again, according to Galloway. Although you won't get the same recovery benefits from a walk that you get from completely ceasing your movements, the less you move your muscles at an intense pace, the less glycogen you burn and lactic acid you produce.

Beginner Jogging Routines

If you’re new to jogging, how often you will need to rest depends on what kind of shape you're in to begin with. To build your cardiovascular stamina and muscular endurance, try splitting your workouts evenly between jogging and walking, jogging for one minute and walking for one minute. Fitness expert Yuri Elkaim recommends another option for complete beginners -- jogging at 75 percent of your maximum speed for one minute followed by four minutes of walking. An intermediate would only need a two-minute walk to recover. If you’re jogging on a treadmill with an electronic console, look for programs that have hills and valleys, rather than a steady-state cardio routine. Depending on your conditioning, a speed of 3 mph to 4 mph will simulate a brisk walk, with anything over 4 mph simulating a jog. Instead of stopping completely, take your "breaks" by walking at 2 mph to 2.5 mph. Don't come to a complete stop during your workout, or you might stiffen up.

Intermediate Jogging Routines

If you’re in good enough shape to run for 30 minutes or more without stopping and your goal is to burn as many calories as possible, you might not want to take more than a few recovery periods during your jogs, if at all. Intermediates can also use different speeds during a road workout to help burn more calories and improve recovery. Try adding one-minute sprints, followed by two minutes of walking every five minutes to raise and lower your heart rate and trigger different physiological processes, specifically the recovery process in your muscles.

Rest Days

Jogging takes a toll on your body due to the high-impact stresses it places on your spine, back, hips, knees, ankles and feet. Each time you leave the ground, your entire body weight, magnified by the forces of gravity, comes crashing back down on your feet and joints. Experiment with recovery schedules based on your needs. If you feel no ill effects from running, this doesn’t mean your heart, lungs and other muscles aren’t taking punishment that won’t take its toll after many months. In addition to reducing stress, rest days help you strengthen your body, which grows stronger in response to the repair processes that take place after you exercise. Consider taking one day off after two days of jogging, depending on how you feel the day after a jog and at least one day off after every three days to promote recovery and repair.

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About the Author

Sam Ashe-Edmunds has been writing and lecturing for more than 25 years, covering small business, personal finance, health, fitness, nutrition and sports. He has worked in the corporate and nonprofit arenas as a C-Suite executive, serving on several nonprofit boards. He in an internationally traveled sport science writer and lecturer. He has been published in print publications such as Entrepreneur, Tennis, SI for Kids, Professional Pet Sitter, the Chicago Tribune, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Ventura County Star, and on websites such as Motley Fool, LIVESTRONG, Tyra Bank's Type F, USA Today, TheNest, JillianMichaels.com, GolfSmith and Zacks.